A gangster whose .45 misfired during a robbery-murder was sentenced to the same 22 year prison sentence Tuesday as the accomplice who emptied his gun into the victim that day in 2007.
Taariq Miller, 23, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter for his failed role in the killing of Naquan Archie, 18, who was hit with bullets fired by accomplice Willie Yeager on March 26 more than seven years ago.
Miller and his lawyer, Andrew Duclair, said he should get less prison time than the 22 years Yeager got in August because his gun didn’t actually shoot when they both opened fire on gang rival Archie.
U.S. Army soldier Wendy Dean, who was to become Archie’s mother-in-law, made a statement to Mercer County Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez supporting the punishment and condemning Miller as a symptom of what’s wrong in America.
“He is the problem,” she said, gesturing to the audience, “he and the people he brings to court today. He’s gets to smile at you. He gets to see his children when they visit him.”
She turned to face Miller, seated feet away in jail shackles, and said: “You kill people who look like you, and now you want luxuries in prison? You get to breathe.”
As Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor Lew Korngut Miller said at the sentencing hearing, Miller and Yeager were part of the Sex-Money-Murder set of the Bloods who thought they could get credibility among other Trenton gang members if they killed someone.
Another Archie relative told the court the suspects robbed him of the single dollar bill he was carrying at the time. Everyone said Archie was the kind of guy who would have just given them the money.
Miller told the court he was “not a monster, not a murderer,” which prompted an Archie relative to laugh, then burst into tears and run from the courtroom. Miller and Duclair also wanted credit for about 17 months of jail he’s served for an earlier unrelated gun charge.
But Jimenez ruled against that and gave Miller the 22 years negotiated by Duclair and Korngut. Under the sentence, Miller won’t be eligible for parole until almost 19 years behind bars, meaning he could get out by age 45.